Koda’s head is about half of all of Lovey. And you had the nerve to put a small dog in a pink tutu, and she hasn’t ripped half the house apart yet. Now that’s impressive.
9.
OzarkHillbilly
Uck. Gag… puke…. gag. Too much cuteness for one picture.
Is Lovey the boss dog now? That usually seems to happen when you have a big dog paired with a small dog, but I also suspect it happens because the big dog doesn’t want to hurt the little one’s pride and so agrees to go along with it.
If it wouldn’t kick Schrodinger right in the feels, that’s cute enough for me to consider getting a dog.
18.
Mary G
Aww… Thanks, geg6! Two Balloon Juice rescues being adorable together.
19.
phoebes from highland park
That’s so damn cute…and I’m a cat person!
20.
raven
Couple of knuckleheads!
21.
kindness
Great pic. Have Lovey and Thurston seen each other since they separated?
22.
Mai.naem.mobile
A valentines day costume? What? You people don’t think it’s enough to embarrass these puppehs with Christmas reindeer racks and Halloween horrors?
Also too, thats some cute puppehs.
23.
CONGRATULATIONS!
That usually seems to happen when you have a big dog paired with a small dog, but I also suspect it happens because the big dog doesn’t want to hurt the little one’s pride and so agrees to go along with it.
@Mnemosyne: Alpha dog of my entire street is a 6-pound terrier/small rodent cross and it’s not because anyone’s trying to save her pride. If she’s going out, she’s taking a large chunk of whoever’s taking her out with her, and every dog that’s ever met her knows it and has decided it’s just not worth the pain.
24.
Elmo
So my friend with the massively titled Doberman took him to Westminster! He didn’t make the breed cut, but I did get to watch them show in the live feed this morning.
He was the Dobe on Walking Dead (that they ate) and he’s in the new Melissa McCarthy movie “The Boss” coming out in April. He has titles in obedience, conformation, IPO, Barn Hunt, and other disciplines I forget – but in that huge class at WKC he didn’t even register.
Still fun to watch tho!
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Speaking as the current chef, pillow and personal trainer of both a Jack Russell and a Russell/Beagle cross … I laughed out loud. The half-Beagle is all bark and no bite; the full Jack is an absolute sweetie who never starts an altercation but will never back down. I think they’d both be amused by a terrier/rodent cross.
29.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
there’s a dog show on TV tomorrow. Lap dogs
@ JesseRodriguez
NEWS: Joe & Mika will moderate a town hall with Donald Trump airing in prime time tomorrow at 8pmET @ MSNBC
30.
trollhattan
The neighborhood nanobrewery is dog-friendly. We were there yesterday when someone emerged from the back with the biggest St. Bernard I’ve ever seen. In the world of Big Dogs this one takes the cake–head considerably larger than a basketball, and soooo patient with the many toddlers magically drawn to the funny horsie.
My dog, sadly (not her name, hence the lower-case “s”) has no social skills so stays home. Nobody wants to get 86’d from their local nanobrewer.
@Elmo: I used to show and train dogs many years ago as a wee lass but things must have changed a lot if they’re doing Initial Public Offerings now.
35.
JPL
@geg6: It must be so nice walking into a household filled with such puppy love as yours, after a long day at work. How sweet!
36.
gvg
@trollhattan: the biggest St Bernard I’ve ever seen was pregnant. years ago when I went to pick up my cat at the airport. Orlando in summer and the animals were shipped to an unair conditioned warehouse so I made sure I was there early. Lady had just bought the dog of her dreams (pregnant) and was picking it up. The dog was hairy, huge and hot. Panting constantly and bigger than a large sofa. Lady was taking it home to a condo(airconditioned, I asked) and so excited. I decided never to get a St Bernard in Florida. torture IMO. that was a really big dog.
37.
trollhattan
@raven:
!!! Trying, and failing to guess how many times I’ll be rewatching that video. Sooooo funny!
Lovey is definitely the bossier one of the two. Koda has always been very laid back. Lovey pushes her way into everything: Koda’s food bowl, my lap, between Koda and John when they are laying down, shoving to the front when they are getting bites from people plates, when I’m petting Koda, when it’s time to go outside, when Koda has a toy, literally everything. And she’s much more volatile. For instance, she loves, loves, loves her sleep. If John goes to bed before me, he takes the dogs with him. When I go to get into bed, I have be careful to gently wake Lovey up so I can get into bed because, if I don’t, she’ll lash out and bite me. She doesn’t mean it, really, she just is a grumpy dog when awakened unexpectedly.
However, when Koda has had enough, she lets Lovey know quite forcefully and Lovey knows that she needs to back off. Lovey is aware enough to know Koda could break her in two if she wanted.
39.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Thanks geg6 for the very cute picture of Lovey’s valentine outfit. Can we get one of Koda in her Tshirt? I can just see the fashion envy in her eyes!
@raven: They look great.Two of the happiest knuckleheads I’ve seen lately.
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): You can’t tell but Lil Bit’s vision is failing. It’s not a surprise since we’ve battled for 6 + years to keep it going. On the plus side she doesn’t really seem to be bothered as long as she gets food, cookies and scratching! She got released after her ACL surgery in October so now all 4 of us can sleep in the king sized bed!
42.
raven
@trollhattan: Funny how many do that slide down the stairs move!
43.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven: I wondered how her eyes were doing, but she’s so loved, I expected she’d cope pretty well.
HOUSTON (FOX 26) – Believe it or not, the US Marshals Service in Houston is arresting people for not paying their outstanding federal student loans.
Paul Aker says he was arrested at his home last week for a $1500 federal student loan he received in 1987.
He says seven deputy US Marshals showed up at his home with guns and took him to federal court where he had to sign a payment plan for the 29-year-old school loan.
Congressman Gene Green says the federal government is now using private debt collectors to go after those who owe student loans.
Green says as a result, those attorneys and debt collectors are getting judgements in federal court and asking judges to use the US Marshals Service to arrest those who have failed to pay their federal student loans.
@Bobby Thomson: I’m glad you said that because I was feeling mean for remembering someone I know on line who used to brag about how she’d never paid back a penny of her loan and had no intention of ever doing so.
Not sheets. An old comforter we keep on the couch in the sunroom to keep the dogs from tearing the leather.
We do the same thing! All decent furniture must be covered by ratty old blankets to protect it from the dogs and cats. I love it but it drives my wife crazy.
@raven: Too f’n funny. When we went down to BR 2 yrs ago, the Woofmeister suddenly refused to walk up stairs (we have them here) at a motel. Took me about 30 secs to realize that what he did not like was the open kicks and being able to see thru them as he went up. Kept thinking his lard ass was going to fall thru that 4 inch gap. I had to carry him up the stairs and he liked that even less.
I’ve got a relative that hasn’t paid back his student loans for at least 40 years. I’m not sure how he has gotten away it for so long. He does odd job carpentry work and works for cash as much as possible. He’s going to be really hurting from not having put much of anything into SS for all this time. He’s about 60 now. Incredibly stupid because he probably only went to a junior college for only a couple of years and could have paid off loans gotten back in the 70’s long ago. He was an active alcoholic for most of that time until about 5 years ago so he wasn’t making any coherent decisions.
@Ruviana: HA! Very good! IPO is the new name for Schutzhund. It stands for Internationale Prüfungs-Ordnung, which is International Exam Rules (or close to it). It’s basically advanced obedience and protection work.
I can’t quite bring myself to dress Iggy and Muppet up. I got antlers and a Santa hat for them for Christmas, but they only go on the dogs for a minute or two, because they won’t be having with it.
ETA — they could use a lot of work on their obedience. They’re great at learning commands — the trouble is, Mr. Mingobat isn’t great at it. He keeps forgetting which command is for which behavior, gives up, and just shouts at them when they annoy him. They don’t seem to care — in fact, they seem to get a kick out of it. I’m starting to think they purposely troll him.
@rikyrah: Seven (7!) agents to show up arrest someone for a $1500 debt (probably a lot more now with interest and penalties, but still). Why 7? Why not one or maybe two agents to arrest someone over a financial issue with no obvious reason for violence? I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole operation, arrest and court and all, cost more than the outstanding debt, including interest. One of the problems in this country is that there are too many police agents with too little to do, and too many numeric goals they have to hit for arrests and stuff.
66.
Ruviana
@elmo: Interesting. I probably would’ve liked that in my dog-training youth.
67.
JPL
The sound and the fury, the NYTimes has an interactive where you match the dog bark to the dog. link
Finch was thrilled to listen to various sounds. I started off great, but my finish was lacking
68.
gvg
people who get behind on loans can kind of panic and don’t know how to deal with it when things are better. The Department of Ed will work with you and you can start a payment plan but you have to call. For the old bank loans guaranteed by the government, if you defaulted, the government bought it back from the bank so the bank had no downside and no reason to help you avoid being in default but once the government owns it, it’s different. There are income dependent plans for repayment etc. They probably don’t know this and don’t know how to fix an earlier bad choice or even just a bad financial patch. Also a bad financial patch can be reason to put the loans into forbearance. Its not hopeless.
It looks like this did happen, but not quite the way your FOX link puts it. Apparently, this particular guy did something to make the marshals think they were going to get a fight.
Anyway, this happens but is rare. Usually, they just take your income tax refund and/or have your employer take it out of your paycheck. I don’t know the details of this guy’s situation, but if he didn’t file taxes and wasn’t working for another person or a company and didn’t respond to any of their calls or letters or the legal case against him, they really have no choice but to arrest him. They are federal loans litigated in federal court and the marshals have to be the ones to make the arrest. He could have avoided every single bit of this if he had just contacted them to set up a deferral or one of the many payment options. I really don’t have a lot of sympathy for the guy. He had numerous opportunities to try to mitigate the situation. He didn’t take any of them.
70.
gvg
link didn’t work
studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans#cant-afford-payments
71.
Mike J
@geg6: But doesn’t it sound better to say, “man arrested for getting education”? Doesn’t it make you angry to say it that way? Makes you want to throw around the word “banksters” and say the grups don’t understand.
@rikyrah: Wow. I just paid off the remainder of my undergraduate loans last year so the fact that people are being arrested for school loans hits too close to home. That is awful and should be illegal.
74.
Calouste
@Patricia Kayden: He might want to avoid being known as a member of the Gridlock and Obstruction Party, but it might already be too late for that.
You might want to give your friend that link that gvg posted above. Ironically, the government is usually a lot more willing to work out a debt issue than a private lender is, as long as you show good faith that you want to resolve it.
That’s what’s tough about living in reality. I do student aid for a living. I can’t wave my hands around and blame it all on the nefarious Obama/Clinton corporate mafia or the banksters. Sadly, federal loans are not through corporations or banks, so it must be that Obama is evil in this case.
79.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Speaking of not too sweet, I am at this moment eating your valentine breakfast. Very good! I used half the suggested sugar so I ended adding milk and brown sugar in my bowl. Yum!
80.
J R in WV
Great essence of cuteness puppy-wise. Love the costume on someone else’s dawgs.
Don’t you know better that to swallow whole anything being pushed by Fox by now? They are always leaving out parts of the story to make it fit their perverted world-view.
When we got married, three days after she graduated, Mrs J had a small loan, I think a regular one from a bank. We paid it off by the time I was out of the Navy. Education wasn’t necessarily so expensive in the 1970s and 1980s, if you didn’t go to a private college or university.
I was fortunate to have earned a GI Bill benefit that way helped us afford my college career. I did earn it, I can tell you that.
I doubt it would happen to you or 95% of student loan borrowers. I’ve worked in this area for over 20 years. Never happened to any of my students or even any of my fellow student loan borrowers from my undergrad days. And yes, I’ve known many of them to have trouble making payment and even default. This is very unusual.
82.
WaterGirl
@geg6: They are now, but couldn’t a 20 year old loan be through a bank?
83.
delk
I don’t dress up my dog, but sometimes I take his collar off so he can experiment with the naturist lifestyle.
And you have hit the nail on the head. The feds will literally go to ridiculous lengths to try to avoid or mitigate a student loan default. And, really, the people bitching about student loan debt really can’t be bitching about the federal loans. The max a typical undergrad can borrow under the federal loan system is $31,000. That’s a lot of money, but it’s not even what a lot of cars cost. If students choose to borrow from private lenders to go to overpriced schools, this is really about their own judgment.
They are all now under the federal system. The money is owed to the feds. There are loan servicers that are contracted by the feds, but they don’t lend and aren’t the ones to whom the funds are owed.
87.
JPL
The President is suppose to make an announcement shortly having to do with the Supreme Court.
88.
NotMax
Ah, see that site work is ongoing, as promised, in January.
Forget it. He’s burned his bridges with everyone in the family. We all think he and his partner (never married) pickled their brains with booze and he’s got huge grudges against everyone for one reason or another. He sponged off his mother until his other siblings moved her to an assisted living home for her physical safety in general (falling a lot) and to get her away from his and partners’ mental abuse. I don’t think any of us have seen them in a couple of years and no one wants to.
And I only started putting sweaters and such on Lovey because she was always shivering when the weather started getting cold. I’m not going to watch her shiver because I am afraid she’d be humiliated. Turns out, she loves her sweaters. She gets upset when I take one off to wash it and have to put a new one on right away. Meanwhile, Koda was getting jealous of the sweaters and pouted so much we tried to find some her size, but until we find some at a reasonable price (I am not paying $70 for a dog sweater), we’ve been putting old t-shirts and sweaters on her (slightly modified) that John’s daughter left behind when she moved out. She struts around like she has one of Lovey’s sequined numbers on.
She wasn’t quite as big as that Bernard, but our beloved black-and-chocolate lab used to wear herself out so thoroughly on hikes or chasing tennis balls when we went to the local schoolyard that I would often end up carrying her home in my arms.
Well, no worries, then. As even my successful AA-going friends will say, sometimes the problem isn’t the alcohol, it’s the person. Take away the alcohol and now you have a sober asshole.
Definitely. They were kind of assholes when they were drinking but when they quit, they really turned evil.
97.
D58826
stop the presses important OT SCOTUS news flash: Orin Hatch has taken his name out of consideration for the opern seat. And no it’s not an Onion headline.
And Mr Rubio further expanding on his knowledge of the Constitution says that no president (well democratic ones) should be allowed top fill a SCOTUS seat unless he can be held accountable by the voters at the next election. Which pretty much rules out any appointments in a second term. I wonder if that rule applies to all presidential actions in a second term?
98.
D58826
@geg6: We had friends with a doxy who shivered every time he was put in the yard during the cold weather so his humans would bring him right back in. Then the doxy started shivering in July and his humans figured they were being played by the pooch.
Dave Weigel’s twitter feed has pictures of America.
105.
Matt McIrvin
@Timurid: If I were a Republican I would be pushing hard for Rubio right now. As I said in the other thread, he’s the only Republican who is currently beating Hillary Clinton in head-to-head polls. While there’s no certainty that that will hold, it obviously counts for something, and his pitch is that Scalia’s death makes electability even more critical than it was.
@JPL: Only if you knew that the president wasn’t going to stand for reelection. But this entire issue could be solved with a simple amendment to the Constitution which says ‘the Electoral College will always select the Republican candidate’.
The Des Moines Register rips Grassley for saying Obama’s SC nominee should get no hearing:
This could have been a “profile in courage” moment for Sen. Grassley. This was an opportunity for our senior senator to be less of a politician and more of a statesman. It was a chance for him to be principled rather than partisan.
He could have made it clear that he favors a Senate vote on the matter — a move that still would enable Republicans to accept or reject the eventual nominee based on merit — but he chose instead to disregard his constitutional duty by rejecting a nominee who hasn’t even been named.
It’s wrong. It’s not unexpected, and it’s not a surprise, but it’s still wrong.
109.
Mike J
@Timurid: If he breaks into single digits, he’ll be declared the winner.
“I work my tail off, pooping all the way out in the yard, barking at the mailman, thinking up cute stuff to do so they’ll get a needed laugh…and SHE gets all the cute outfits!”
111.
Matt McIrvin
That said, looking at actual poll numbers, this supposed massive Rubio surge in South Carolina looks pretty weak to me.
112.
raven
@bemused: That’s right sports fans. As Pete Hammill in “A Drinking Life” says “being sober does not solve all of your problems, you just live with more lucidity”.
113.
Matt McIrvin
@A Ghost To Most: And what’s the chance of that happening? Pretty close to nil, I’d imagine, unless something like the Bloomberg Doom Scenario occurs.
114.
A Ghost To Most
@JCT:
Ha! Most of the responses are telling Jeb not to commit suicide because he is doing so lousy.
115.
WarMunchkin
Holy fuck shit. I have not watched a presser in a long time. Do these journalists always try to provoke people into smacking them in the mouth?
LOL! Lovey tries to ignore the cold but I can see her shiver. She’d stay out in the cold all day if I let her.
120.
Baud
Doggies are adorable.
121.
scav
@A Ghost To Most: Don’t they recognize the gang sign being flashed? Isn’t that supposed to make everthing all better, a la belting out “who let the dogs out?”
Wasn’t he the FL gov who signed that odious “Stand your ground” law? I’d bet serious money he’s never even fired that pistol or any other. And I love that the safety is off – he’s probably a big supporter of the FL law that doesn’t allow pediatricians to ask if there are guns in the house.
Sickening and pathetic.
123.
Matt McIrvin
@A Ghost To Most: If the Democrats lose the White House, I think it’s extremely unlikely they’d regain control of the Senate.
I think G assumes I’m more obsessed than I really am because I read L-M’s Twitter feed and know stuff like how excited his young nephews were when their tio won a Grammy last night. It’s right out there in public, though, so I’m not exactly a stalker. Or at least the world’s laziest stalker since I never bother to look much beyond Twitter.
125.
A Ghost To Most
Stranger shit has happened; just last weekend, 50 million people wished a man dead,and he up and died.
126.
D58826
@geg6: Not Fred. He had a pile of warm blankets that needed his undivided attention 24-7.
127.
Gimlet
If Scalia had not wanted Obama to name his successor, he would not have died at this time.
@bemused: If the authorities catch up with your relative, they will garnish his Social Security payments. He’d better be able to work for a long, long time.
135.
Ohio Mom
@Ohio Mom: Shoulda read the rest of the comments before saying anything. Sounds like we don’t much care what happens to him. Just about every extended family I know has one of ’em.
136.
Aleta
Lovey looks more like a bolster.
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Esme's Mom
Stinkin cute!!!!
Punchy
I Love-y that pic. Seems like a Koda-k moment.
But the bedsheets are just awful.
D58826
the cute will melt my monitor!!!!!
dlm
Sweet.
Dork
If only the small dog was a hooker and there was a pillow over the large dog, I’d assume you were re-enacting the death of Fat Tony.
geg6
@Punchy:
Not sheets. An old comforter we keep on the couch in the sunroom to keep the dogs from tearing the leather.
dr. bloor
@Dork:
Needs moar hams.
https://twitter.com/SCOTUS_Scalia/status/698966118686281729.
Emma
Koda’s head is about half of all of Lovey. And you had the nerve to put a small dog in a pink tutu, and she hasn’t ripped half the house apart yet. Now that’s impressive.
OzarkHillbilly
Uck. Gag… puke…. gag. Too much cuteness for one picture.
schrodinger's cat
My head just exploded with the cute. Thanks!
raven
I put one of those harnesses on Lil Bit, it’s easier on her neck!
elisabeth
I thought this was going to be about dog shampoo
Mnemosyne
Is Lovey the boss dog now? That usually seems to happen when you have a big dog paired with a small dog, but I also suspect it happens because the big dog doesn’t want to hurt the little one’s pride and so agrees to go along with it.
Tinare
So stickin’ cute! Needed that to brighten my day.
Elizabelle
test
TaMara (BHF)
Awwww.
Manyakitty
If it wouldn’t kick Schrodinger right in the feels, that’s cute enough for me to consider getting a dog.
Mary G
Aww… Thanks, geg6! Two Balloon Juice rescues being adorable together.
phoebes from highland park
That’s so damn cute…and I’m a cat person!
raven
Couple of knuckleheads!
kindness
Great pic. Have Lovey and Thurston seen each other since they separated?
Mai.naem.mobile
A valentines day costume? What? You people don’t think it’s enough to embarrass these puppehs with Christmas reindeer racks and Halloween horrors?
Also too, thats some cute puppehs.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Mnemosyne: Alpha dog of my entire street is a 6-pound terrier/small rodent cross and it’s not because anyone’s trying to save her pride. If she’s going out, she’s taking a large chunk of whoever’s taking her out with her, and every dog that’s ever met her knows it and has decided it’s just not worth the pain.
Elmo
So my friend with the massively titled Doberman took him to Westminster! He didn’t make the breed cut, but I did get to watch them show in the live feed this morning.
He was the Dobe on Walking Dead (that they ate) and he’s in the new Melissa McCarthy movie “The Boss” coming out in April. He has titles in obedience, conformation, IPO, Barn Hunt, and other disciplines I forget – but in that huge class at WKC he didn’t even register.
Still fun to watch tho!
raven
I posted this yesterday but I don’t care. Pups on the steps.
schrodinger's cat
@raven: Nice! What camera did you use?
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: Canon T3i
petesh
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Speaking as the current chef, pillow and personal trainer of both a Jack Russell and a Russell/Beagle cross … I laughed out loud. The half-Beagle is all bark and no bite; the full Jack is an absolute sweetie who never starts an altercation but will never back down. I think they’d both be amused by a terrier/rodent cross.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
there’s a dog show on TV tomorrow. Lap dogs
trollhattan
The neighborhood nanobrewery is dog-friendly. We were there yesterday when someone emerged from the back with the biggest St. Bernard I’ve ever seen. In the world of Big Dogs this one takes the cake–head considerably larger than a basketball, and soooo patient with the many toddlers magically drawn to the funny horsie.
My dog, sadly (not her name, hence the lower-case “s”) has no social skills so stays home. Nobody wants to get 86’d from their local nanobrewer.
Iowa Old Lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: And that right there is a perfectly crystalized moment of MSM.
kc
That is freakin’ adorable.
raven
@trollhattan: At about 1:45 watch this dude carry the Bernard down the stairs! The whole thing is hilarious but that part may be the best.
Ruviana
@Elmo: I used to show and train dogs many years ago as a wee lass but things must have changed a lot if they’re doing Initial Public Offerings now.
JPL
@geg6: It must be so nice walking into a household filled with such puppy love as yours, after a long day at work. How sweet!
gvg
@trollhattan: the biggest St Bernard I’ve ever seen was pregnant. years ago when I went to pick up my cat at the airport. Orlando in summer and the animals were shipped to an unair conditioned warehouse so I made sure I was there early. Lady had just bought the dog of her dreams (pregnant) and was picking it up. The dog was hairy, huge and hot. Panting constantly and bigger than a large sofa. Lady was taking it home to a condo(airconditioned, I asked) and so excited. I decided never to get a St Bernard in Florida. torture IMO. that was a really big dog.
trollhattan
@raven:
!!! Trying, and failing to guess how many times I’ll be rewatching that video. Sooooo funny!
geg6
@Mnemosyne:
Lovey is definitely the bossier one of the two. Koda has always been very laid back. Lovey pushes her way into everything: Koda’s food bowl, my lap, between Koda and John when they are laying down, shoving to the front when they are getting bites from people plates, when I’m petting Koda, when it’s time to go outside, when Koda has a toy, literally everything. And she’s much more volatile. For instance, she loves, loves, loves her sleep. If John goes to bed before me, he takes the dogs with him. When I go to get into bed, I have be careful to gently wake Lovey up so I can get into bed because, if I don’t, she’ll lash out and bite me. She doesn’t mean it, really, she just is a grumpy dog when awakened unexpectedly.
However, when Koda has had enough, she lets Lovey know quite forcefully and Lovey knows that she needs to back off. Lovey is aware enough to know Koda could break her in two if she wanted.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Thanks geg6 for the very cute picture of Lovey’s valentine outfit. Can we get one of Koda in her Tshirt? I can just see the fashion envy in her eyes!
@raven: They look great.Two of the happiest knuckleheads I’ve seen lately.
rikyrah
that pic is just adorable.
raven
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): You can’t tell but Lil Bit’s vision is failing. It’s not a surprise since we’ve battled for 6 + years to keep it going. On the plus side she doesn’t really seem to be bothered as long as she gets food, cookies and scratching! She got released after her ACL surgery in October so now all 4 of us can sleep in the king sized bed!
raven
@trollhattan: Funny how many do that slide down the stairs move!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven: I wondered how her eyes were doing, but she’s so loved, I expected she’d cope pretty well.
rikyrah
WHAT DA PHUCK IS THIS?
……………..
US Marshals arresting people for not paying their federal student loans
POSTED:FEB 15 2016 07:02PM CST
HOUSTON (FOX 26) – Believe it or not, the US Marshals Service in Houston is arresting people for not paying their outstanding federal student loans.
Paul Aker says he was arrested at his home last week for a $1500 federal student loan he received in 1987.
He says seven deputy US Marshals showed up at his home with guns and took him to federal court where he had to sign a payment plan for the 29-year-old school loan.
Congressman Gene Green says the federal government is now using private debt collectors to go after those who owe student loans.
Green says as a result, those attorneys and debt collectors are getting judgements in federal court and asking judges to use the US Marshals Service to arrest those who have failed to pay their federal student loans.
Iowa Old Lady
@raven: Great video, Raven.
Bobby Thomson
@rikyrah: I don’t have much sympathy for ignoring a loan for 29 years. If he weren’t a scofflaw I doubt the marshals would have showed up.
There are people who got into desperate financial situations through student loans. He’s not a sympathetic case.
Iowa Old Lady
@Bobby Thomson: I’m glad you said that because I was feeling mean for remembering someone I know on line who used to brag about how she’d never paid back a penny of her loan and had no intention of ever doing so.
benw
@geg6:
We do the same thing! All decent furniture must be covered by ratty old blankets to protect it from the dogs and cats. I love it but it drives my wife crazy.
@raven: nice!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Too f’n funny. When we went down to BR 2 yrs ago, the Woofmeister suddenly refused to walk up stairs (we have them here) at a motel. Took me about 30 secs to realize that what he did not like was the open kicks and being able to see thru them as he went up. Kept thinking his lard ass was going to fall thru that 4 inch gap. I had to carry him up the stairs and he liked that even less.
gogol's wife
@Mnemosyne:
Did you see Hamilton on the Grammys last night? It soooo made me want to see it!
Love Lovey and Koda!
Miss Bianca
screaming cuteness.
Mnemosyne
@gogol’s wife:
We DVR’d the entire show just to watch that part. I have to watch my squees over Lin-Manuel, though, since G is suspicious of my love.
(I really do only love the guy like a brother — not really my type. Plus his wife could easily take me in a fistfight.)
bemused
@Bobby Thomson:
I’ve got a relative that hasn’t paid back his student loans for at least 40 years. I’m not sure how he has gotten away it for so long. He does odd job carpentry work and works for cash as much as possible. He’s going to be really hurting from not having put much of anything into SS for all this time. He’s about 60 now. Incredibly stupid because he probably only went to a junior college for only a couple of years and could have paid off loans gotten back in the 70’s long ago. He was an active alcoholic for most of that time until about 5 years ago so he wasn’t making any coherent decisions.
gogol's wife
@Mnemosyne:
My husband is tolerant. We both love LMM.
Mnemosyne
@gogol’s wife:
G loves him, too — he’s the one who made me listen to the soundtrack in the first place. But he’s a little jealous anyway.
;-)
Amir Khalid
I see Alain’s been futzing with the comments format again. How nice.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
Hey! Someone broke in and stole all the comment numbers!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel: I’m sure s/he’ll give them back since they don’t have much street value.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@Amir Khalid:
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel:
I expect we’ll get them back — we always have before. And wow, how nice to have a “Post Comment” button that a person can actually see.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
LOL, jinxing with Amir, jinxing with you….
elmo
@Ruviana: HA! Very good! IPO is the new name for Schutzhund. It stands for Internationale Prüfungs-Ordnung, which is International Exam Rules (or close to it). It’s basically advanced obedience and protection work.
schrodinger's cat
WTF happened to the comments? Is this the new and improved commenting system?
Gin & Tonic
@schrodinger’s cat: Looks like the old ratty one with a hastily-applied coat of paint.
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
Okay, Lovey and Koda are precious.
I can’t quite bring myself to dress Iggy and Muppet up. I got antlers and a Santa hat for them for Christmas, but they only go on the dogs for a minute or two, because they won’t be having with it.
ETA — they could use a lot of work on their obedience. They’re great at learning commands — the trouble is, Mr. Mingobat isn’t great at it. He keeps forgetting which command is for which behavior, gives up, and just shouts at them when they annoy him. They don’t seem to care — in fact, they seem to get a kick out of it. I’m starting to think they purposely troll him.
@raven: Aww? Yes! Aww!
Calouste
@rikyrah: Seven (7!) agents to show up arrest someone for a $1500 debt (probably a lot more now with interest and penalties, but still). Why 7? Why not one or maybe two agents to arrest someone over a financial issue with no obvious reason for violence? I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole operation, arrest and court and all, cost more than the outstanding debt, including interest. One of the problems in this country is that there are too many police agents with too little to do, and too many numeric goals they have to hit for arrests and stuff.
Ruviana
@elmo: Interesting. I probably would’ve liked that in my dog-training youth.
JPL
The sound and the fury, the NYTimes has an interactive where you match the dog bark to the dog.
link
Finch was thrilled to listen to various sounds. I started off great, but my finish was lacking
gvg
people who get behind on loans can kind of panic and don’t know how to deal with it when things are better. The Department of Ed will work with you and you can start a payment plan but you have to call. For the old bank loans guaranteed by the government, if you defaulted, the government bought it back from the bank so the bank had no downside and no reason to help you avoid being in default but once the government owns it, it’s different. There are income dependent plans for repayment etc. They probably don’t know this and don’t know how to fix an earlier bad choice or even just a bad financial patch. Also a bad financial patch can be reason to put the loans into forbearance. Its not hopeless.
geg6
@rikyrah:
It looks like this did happen, but not quite the way your FOX link puts it. Apparently, this particular guy did something to make the marshals think they were going to get a fight.
http://mic.com/articles/135363/federal-agents-with-automatic-weapons-arrested-this-man-for-not-paying-his-student-loans#.P7YTyfNr3
Anyway, this happens but is rare. Usually, they just take your income tax refund and/or have your employer take it out of your paycheck. I don’t know the details of this guy’s situation, but if he didn’t file taxes and wasn’t working for another person or a company and didn’t respond to any of their calls or letters or the legal case against him, they really have no choice but to arrest him. They are federal loans litigated in federal court and the marshals have to be the ones to make the arrest. He could have avoided every single bit of this if he had just contacted them to set up a deferral or one of the many payment options. I really don’t have a lot of sympathy for the guy. He had numerous opportunities to try to mitigate the situation. He didn’t take any of them.
gvg
link didn’t work
studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans#cant-afford-payments
Mike J
@geg6: But doesn’t it sound better to say, “man arrested for getting education”? Doesn’t it make you angry to say it that way? Makes you want to throw around the word “banksters” and say the grups don’t understand.
Patricia Kayden
That photo is adorable!
At least one GOP Senator calls out Republicans for appearing to be obstructionists when it comes to SCOTUS.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/02/16/3749883/gop-senator-obstructionists/
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: Wow. I just paid off the remainder of my undergraduate loans last year so the fact that people are being arrested for school loans hits too close to home. That is awful and should be illegal.
Calouste
@Patricia Kayden: He might want to avoid being known as a member of the Gridlock and Obstruction Party, but it might already be too late for that.
WereBear
Still, there’s a lot of shenanigans going on with debt collection. I’ve heard the worst and I believe the worst.
Also, too: Some dogs like dressing up. My mother’s Papillon would not set foot outdoors, in any weather, unless he had on a FABulous outfit.
WaterGirl
Thanks to geg6 and Cole for this happy interlude!
Mnemosyne
@bemused:
You might want to give your friend that link that gvg posted above. Ironically, the government is usually a lot more willing to work out a debt issue than a private lender is, as long as you show good faith that you want to resolve it.
geg6
@Mike J:
That’s what’s tough about living in reality. I do student aid for a living. I can’t wave my hands around and blame it all on the nefarious Obama/Clinton corporate mafia or the banksters. Sadly, federal loans are not through corporations or banks, so it must be that Obama is evil in this case.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Speaking of not too sweet, I am at this moment eating your valentine breakfast. Very good! I used half the suggested sugar so I ended adding milk and brown sugar in my bowl. Yum!
J R in WV
Great essence of cuteness puppy-wise. Love the costume on someone else’s dawgs.
@rikyrah:
Don’t you know better that to swallow whole anything being pushed by Fox by now? They are always leaving out parts of the story to make it fit their perverted world-view.
When we got married, three days after she graduated, Mrs J had a small loan, I think a regular one from a bank. We paid it off by the time I was out of the Navy. Education wasn’t necessarily so expensive in the 1970s and 1980s, if you didn’t go to a private college or university.
I was fortunate to have earned a GI Bill benefit that way helped us afford my college career. I did earn it, I can tell you that.
geg6
@Patricia Kayden:
I doubt it would happen to you or 95% of student loan borrowers. I’ve worked in this area for over 20 years. Never happened to any of my students or even any of my fellow student loan borrowers from my undergrad days. And yes, I’ve known many of them to have trouble making payment and even default. This is very unusual.
WaterGirl
@geg6: They are now, but couldn’t a 20 year old loan be through a bank?
delk
I don’t dress up my dog, but sometimes I take his collar off so he can experiment with the naturist lifestyle.
geg6
@Mnemosyne:
And you have hit the nail on the head. The feds will literally go to ridiculous lengths to try to avoid or mitigate a student loan default. And, really, the people bitching about student loan debt really can’t be bitching about the federal loans. The max a typical undergrad can borrow under the federal loan system is $31,000. That’s a lot of money, but it’s not even what a lot of cars cost. If students choose to borrow from private lenders to go to overpriced schools, this is really about their own judgment.
Shell
@delk: My dog always acts nervous if I take off her collar, as if “What do you have planned?”
geg6
@WaterGirl:
They are all now under the federal system. The money is owed to the feds. There are loan servicers that are contracted by the feds, but they don’t lend and aren’t the ones to whom the funds are owed.
JPL
The President is suppose to make an announcement shortly having to do with the Supreme Court.
NotMax
Ah, see that site work is ongoing, as promised, in January.
Granted, it’s January the 47th.
:)
bemused
@Mnemosyne:
Forget it. He’s burned his bridges with everyone in the family. We all think he and his partner (never married) pickled their brains with booze and he’s got huge grudges against everyone for one reason or another. He sponged off his mother until his other siblings moved her to an assisted living home for her physical safety in general (falling a lot) and to get her away from his and partners’ mental abuse. I don’t think any of us have seen them in a couple of years and no one wants to.
geg6
@Shell:
Mine do, too.
And I only started putting sweaters and such on Lovey because she was always shivering when the weather started getting cold. I’m not going to watch her shiver because I am afraid she’d be humiliated. Turns out, she loves her sweaters. She gets upset when I take one off to wash it and have to put a new one on right away. Meanwhile, Koda was getting jealous of the sweaters and pouted so much we tried to find some her size, but until we find some at a reasonable price (I am not paying $70 for a dog sweater), we’ve been putting old t-shirts and sweaters on her (slightly modified) that John’s daughter left behind when she moved out. She struts around like she has one of Lovey’s sequined numbers on.
Randy P
@raven: I love it.
She wasn’t quite as big as that Bernard, but our beloved black-and-chocolate lab used to wear herself out so thoroughly on hikes or chasing tennis balls when we went to the local schoolyard that I would often end up carrying her home in my arms.
bemused
@geg6:
Jealous Koda. Oh my gosh, that’s so funny and adorable.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@Patricia Kayden:
It’s okay to be obstructionist, just don’t appear to be obstructionist.
Got it.
delk
@Shell: I have all his old collars. If I take one out he goes nuts. Like looking at vacation pictures I guess.
Mnemosyne
@bemused:
Well, no worries, then. As even my successful AA-going friends will say, sometimes the problem isn’t the alcohol, it’s the person. Take away the alcohol and now you have a sober asshole.
bemused
@Mnemosyne:
Definitely. They were kind of assholes when they were drinking but when they quit, they really turned evil.
D58826
stop the presses important OT SCOTUS news flash: Orin Hatch has taken his name out of consideration for the opern seat. And no it’s not an Onion headline.
And Mr Rubio further expanding on his knowledge of the Constitution says that no president (well democratic ones) should be allowed top fill a SCOTUS seat unless he can be held accountable by the voters at the next election. Which pretty much rules out any appointments in a second term. I wonder if that rule applies to all presidential actions in a second term?
D58826
@geg6: We had friends with a doxy who shivered every time he was put in the yard during the cold weather so his humans would bring him right back in. Then the doxy started shivering in July and his humans figured they were being played by the pooch.
A Ghost To Most
17 days in January
Interesting article about how Obama could still get a nominee through in January if Dems lose the White House, but win the Senate.
JPL
@D58826: Wouldn’t that rule out first term nominations also.
JCT
Meanwhile, looks like Jeb! is trying to boost his manly bonafides. Words fail. And note the safety is off. What a moron.
Jeb’s “America”
Timurid
Satire. Is. Dead.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mnemosyne: George W Bush says “Whut? Huh?”
speaking of assholes named Bush, has Jeb’s fuckin’ nutty tweet, trying harder to seem macho than his old man pretending to like country music, been discussed?
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: We are the most exceptional nation in the world. America, America
Dave Weigel’s twitter feed has pictures of America.
Matt McIrvin
@Timurid: If I were a Republican I would be pushing hard for Rubio right now. As I said in the other thread, he’s the only Republican who is currently beating Hillary Clinton in head-to-head polls. While there’s no certainty that that will hold, it obviously counts for something, and his pitch is that Scalia’s death makes electability even more critical than it was.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: JCT linked to it also.
I can’t even.
D58826
@JPL: Only if you knew that the president wasn’t going to stand for reelection. But this entire issue could be solved with a simple amendment to the Constitution which says ‘the Electoral College will always select the Republican candidate’.
Iowa Old Lady
The Des Moines Register rips Grassley for saying Obama’s SC nominee should get no hearing:
Mike J
@Timurid: If he breaks into single digits, he’ll be declared the winner.
Pogonip
“I work my tail off, pooping all the way out in the yard, barking at the mailman, thinking up cute stuff to do so they’ll get a needed laugh…and SHE gets all the cute outfits!”
Matt McIrvin
That said, looking at actual poll numbers, this supposed massive Rubio surge in South Carolina looks pretty weak to me.
raven
@bemused: That’s right sports fans. As Pete Hammill in “A Drinking Life” says “being sober does not solve all of your problems, you just live with more lucidity”.
Matt McIrvin
@A Ghost To Most: And what’s the chance of that happening? Pretty close to nil, I’d imagine, unless something like the Bloomberg Doom Scenario occurs.
A Ghost To Most
@JCT:
Ha! Most of the responses are telling Jeb not to commit suicide because he is doing so lousy.
WarMunchkin
Holy fuck shit. I have not watched a presser in a long time. Do these journalists always try to provoke people into smacking them in the mouth?
Old Dan and Little Anne
PBO is doing his thing killing the GOP and their fucking stupidity. Man am I going to miss calling him our Current President.
Baud
@JCT:
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
A dick pic from Jeb would have been less offensive.
A Ghost To Most
@Matt McIrvin:
Let’s hope so. Dem in the WH is imperative; Senate would really rub their noses in it.
geg6
@D58826:
LOL! Lovey tries to ignore the cold but I can see her shiver. She’d stay out in the cold all day if I let her.
Baud
Doggies are adorable.
scav
@A Ghost To Most: Don’t they recognize the gang sign being flashed? Isn’t that supposed to make everthing all better, a la belting out “who let the dogs out?”
JCT
@Baud: That was pretty much the same thing.
Wasn’t he the FL gov who signed that odious “Stand your ground” law? I’d bet serious money he’s never even fired that pistol or any other. And I love that the safety is off – he’s probably a big supporter of the FL law that doesn’t allow pediatricians to ask if there are guns in the house.
Sickening and pathetic.
Matt McIrvin
@A Ghost To Most: If the Democrats lose the White House, I think it’s extremely unlikely they’d regain control of the Senate.
Mnemosyne
@gogol’s wife:
I think G assumes I’m more obsessed than I really am because I read L-M’s Twitter feed and know stuff like how excited his young nephews were when their tio won a Grammy last night. It’s right out there in public, though, so I’m not exactly a stalker. Or at least the world’s laziest stalker since I never bother to look much beyond Twitter.
A Ghost To Most
Stranger shit has happened; just last weekend, 50 million people wished a man dead,and he up and died.
D58826
@geg6: Not Fred. He had a pile of warm blankets that needed his undivided attention 24-7.
Gimlet
If Scalia had not wanted Obama to name his successor, he would not have died at this time.
The Lodger
@JPL: Didn’t you mean the sound and the furry?
BTW the mobile site still has comment numbers, last time I checked.
JPL
@The Lodger: Yes .. Did you try to identify the barks..
The Lodger
@JPL: Did they sound furious?
MomSense
Awww, sweet puppies.
Matt McIrvin
Glenn Beck decides that God killed Antonin Scalia to remind us of the importance of voting for Ted Cruz.
Okay then.
NotoriousJRT
Wicked cute!
Ohio Mom
@bemused: If the authorities catch up with your relative, they will garnish his Social Security payments. He’d better be able to work for a long, long time.
Ohio Mom
@Ohio Mom: Shoulda read the rest of the comments before saying anything. Sounds like we don’t much care what happens to him. Just about every extended family I know has one of ’em.
Aleta
Lovey looks more like a bolster.